Carissa Moore: Triple Crown Wildcard

Earlier this summer, 19-year-old surf phenomenon Carissa Moore made history by becoming the youngest-ever ASP Women’s World Champion. Moore, the first Hawaiian to win the title since 1981, is uniquely poised to break many more records as her career unfolds, and recently received some news that deepens her position as a ground-breaking, progressive young surfer.

The North Shore of Oahu will soon play host to the venerable Vans Triple Crown of Surfing (Nov. 12 - Dec. 20), and although the women’s events will unfortunately not be taking place this year, Moore will still be attending, thanks to wildcard invites into the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa and the Vans World Cup of Surfing at Sunset Beach. She’ll be competing with the boys -- 200 of the best the surfing world has to offer.

Moore recently spent some time in California to shred Lowers and polish her skills a bit, so we caught up with her on a visit to Red Bull HQ for a quick chat about the upcoming Triple Crown appearance…

Has your schedule settled down at all after the ASP Tour wrapped up?
Since the U.S. Open finished, I was at home for a few weeks, then I went on a fun surf trip to Mexico, and I’ve been in California for the past ten days or so training with some coaches. I’ll be heading home soon, and then I’ve got a boat trip to Indonesia at the end of October, before the winter season starts.

I thought I wasn’t really going to have too much on the agenda, but now I’ll be doing two of the three events at the Triple Crown. I’m very excited and I’m very honored to be able to surf in the guys’ division.

Were the wildcard invites a total surprise?
The wildcard invites for the Triple Crown were something that I talked about and joked around with my dad about, but I never thought it would become a reality. It was a total surprise and very flattering to be given that opportunity, so I’m psyched.

Are you going to take a different approach to training for those events?
I’ll probably just keep up the same training I would regularly do for the women’s Triple Crown. As far as outlook for results, I’ll probably keep my expectations low, because everybody kind of expects a girl to lose [in that situation]. If anything better happens, that’s awesome.

You achieved your World Title goal relatively quickly; do these wildcard invites help to give you a new goal and some extra motivation?
I have to admit, after I won the ASP World Title and checked that off my list, I was kind of depressed for a little bit, like, “What do I do now?” Just because everything I’ve done in my life up to this point has been to accomplish that one goal, and after you check it off, you’re like, “All right, the skies didn’t part, nothing changed…” (laughs).

I’ve been having fun re-assessing my goals. To have a performance goal to surf like the guys and compete with the guys, that’s very motivating and inspiring.

What’s next for you?
I’m loving life, so I hope to keep doing the same stuff -- traveling the world and doing what I love. I don’t know about [winning] more world titles, but I’d love to…

You’ve definitely had a lot of media attention this year; is there anything you like to do to escape and/or just blow off a little steam?
I just bought my own house, so cleaning and re-organizing my place has been fun. Going shopping for new stuff to put in my house after I clean, that’s been the ultimate therapeutic, get-out-of-pressure-zone activity for me. I like hiking and cooking, too.

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